


Autumn Sunlight

by orphan_account



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2553947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern day AU. Ahiru reminisces about her past with Fakir, as the two begin their future together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Autumn Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moelskerdeg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moelskerdeg/gifts).



Pale autumn sunlight poked through the branches of trees with thinning foliage to shine down on Ahiru as she worked to rake fallen leaves into a pile; it had little warmth to offer her, but she didn't mind. She had a nice warm sweater on, after all, one she'd worked all summer to knit once she'd had the confirmation that she was going to be here during the fall, and the chilly air felt kind of good against her cheeks anyway. She liked this season.

It was a lovely late September day, clear and sunny after a few days of rain, and she'd volunteered to rake the leaves that had fallen all over the small front yard of her host family, since all her homework was done for the day and she was aching to get outside anyway after so much time spent either indoors or hurrying to _get_ indoors. She did enjoy rainy days, to be fair, they had their own joy, but it was also nice to feel even weak sunshine on her face, and there was something beautiful about the way the rain had freshened the air. Really, she enjoyed all weather, except maybe when it was disgustingly hot and there was little fun to be had.

Her mind wandered as she worked, and she found herself thinking about what was likely going on an ocean away right now. Back in America, there'd be pumpkin-flavored everything in all the stores and coffee shops, and the excitement of Halloween would be starting to buzz through everyone, seasonal decorations going up everywhere you looked. Here in Germany, though, no one cared about the holiday, and pumpkin as an ingredient just wasn't really a done thing, not the way it had taken over American palates during this time of year. It made her slightly wistful sometimes, because she _did_ like some of it, but overall it wasn't that bad. She wasn't a coffee person, for one thing, finding the drink far too bitter for her tastes, and Halloween depended too much on things that frightened her for her to really enjoy it the way others did, and some people even laughed at her for preferring the cutesy decorations over the scary ones. And she never had anyone to go to the Halloween dances with anyway, especially since the few friends she'd made were always paired off and didn't need a third wheel, so it wasn't like she was really missing out on that much. No, she was better off here, enjoying her last year of college in the country her parents had immigrated from before she was born, making new friends and falling in love with the land she'd heard about so often as a child. Studying abroad was a revelation in so many ways, and she was grateful every day that she'd been brave enough to go for it. She liked it so much, in fact, that she was already thinking about moving here permanently after graduation. That was still many months away, though, so she didn’t have to start thinking about the needed steps for it just yet, thankfully.

She shook herself out of her thoughts now and tried to concentrate more on the task at hand. Small though the yard was, it was still large enough that her progress hadn't been that quick, and it didn't help that a slight breeze ruffled one or two out of the growing pile every few minutes, undoing some of her hard work. Her little face set in a determined expression, she attacked the remaining leaves with gusto. How long had she been out here? She didn't want to be late for dinner.

A quick glance at her watch once she was done revealed she had plenty of time, though, and looking back at the pile her mind raced. She hadn't jumped in a leaf pile since she was little; dared she do it now? She'd have to redo some of the raking, but there was still lots of time left till dinner and she had nothing else to do anyway… so why not? It’d work up more of an appetite, if nothing else. So, after a moment's slight hesitation and a deep breath, in she plunged, unable to restrain herself from letting out a tiny giggle of childlike delight. It conjured up happy childhood memories of being allowed to do this after her parents had finished the job, and for a moment she just sat there basking in it all.

Before long, however, a noise caught her attention, or maybe she sensed a presence – either way, she looked up and saw that she was no longer alone. Standing a few feet away was her host family's adult son, who lived nearby in an apartment over the small bookstore he ran (the building having been inherited from his biological parents, who'd died when he was a small child). He stood facing her, but, oddly, didn't seem to have noticed what she'd done, apparently absorbed in looking through the stack of books he'd brought with him.  Her face burning, she tentatively said his name. "Fakir?"

"Hmmm?" He glanced over the pile of books he'd brought for Uzura, careful to maintain a neutral expression lest he spoil the illusion that he _hadn't_ just seen her leap into a pile of leaves, looking thoroughly adorable as she did. "Ah… Ahiru…" He let himself adjust his features into a concerned frown as he took her in, still sitting in the leaves. "Are you all right? Did you fall down?"

"What? N-no, I just, um, um… I'm fine." Ahiru rose to her feet in a hurry, brushing some stray leaves off her clothes, and picked up the rake, the blush still hot on her cheeks. "I'm okay, don't – don't worry," she mumbled, avoiding his eyes as she started redoing the work she'd just undone. "It's nothing."

What he must think of her she didn't know, and she was afraid to look at his face to see; but nearly a minute later she felt his fingers brush her head as he plucked a leaf out of her hair. "You had a leaf – there." He dropped it into the pile before moving past her into the house.

It was one of the first times he'd ever touched her, and even half-asleep more than a year later she could still recall, as though it had happened yesterday, just how trembly and warm all over it'd made her feel. She'd been smitten with him from the first time she'd seen him, and as they'd gotten to know each other and started dating those feelings had grown into love.

Oh, but that first meeting… Ahiru pressed her face into the pillow to muffle a sleepy little giggle at the memory. She'd been heading downstairs for dinner on her second night in Germany when she'd heard an unfamiliar voice nearby speaking to Edel, the kind lady who'd opened her family's home to her. The voice had been male, deep and pleasant to her ears, and she found herself immediately curious about its owner. So she'd crept down the stairs as quietly as she could, so as not to draw their attention and interrupt the conversation, only to stop dead in her tracks the moment she saw him. She saw his profile first, saw how tall, dark and handsome he was (in the way that the saying _ought_ to mean, she recalled thinking), and had been instantly taken with him. She hadn't gotten to stare long before he sensed her gaze and turned to look curiously up at her, making her blush and glance away, but it had been the beginning of everything. They'd _both_ been drawn to each other, and from then on it was only a matter of time, and getting past their shyness and awkwardness. Not a day had passed where they weren’t immensely grateful that they'd managed that.

She shifted herself and reached for him, wanting to feel his warmth, but found only an empty spot that had already gone cold; frowning, she opened her eyes and scanned the room. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen and she didn’t hear any noise from the bathroom, and a glance at the bedside clock revealed it was still too early for the shop to be open. That narrowed the field of possible locations considerably. Ahiru yawned, and then somewhat reluctantly pulled herself out of his – no, _their,_ this was her home now too – warm, comfortable bed. She put on her duck slippers and padded out of the room and towards the kitchen.

As she got closer, she indeed heard some soft noises, and sure enough, Fakir was at the counter with his back to her. She smiled sleepily and crept up behind him to slip her arms around him and press her face against his back. “Mmmm… morning.”

“Hey.” Fakir smiled and laid a hand over Ahiru’s, squeezing it softly. “Did you sleep well?”

“Y-yeah.” Ahiru yawned again. “Still tired and feeling weird, though… but I know I’ll adjust, I did before…”

“I figured.” He squeezed her hand again. “That’s why I didn’t want to wake you up; I knew you were tired and jet-lagged.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably go back to bed after I have breakfast, cause I’m hungry.” As if on cue, her stomach growled, and they both laughed.

“Well, you don’t have that long to wait, I only just got started; it’s no trouble to fix a little extra so we can eat together.” Fakir let go of her hand and reached for the bread knife so he could cut a few more slices.

“Okay.” Ahiru closed her eyes and rested her head against him. “Thank you.”

She kept holding him until he needed to put the food on the plates, and then disentangled herself from him and headed over to the kitchen table, yawning faintly again. Fakir served her first, setting down a mug of tea that had had plenty of sugar and milk added, just the way she liked it, and then the platter of toast and rolls, followed by jars of honey and jam, and a smaller plate of cold cuts and cheese. He sat down beside her once everything was on the table, and they ate together in a comfortable silence.

“Does that help?” Fakir asked as she set down her empty mug. “Eating, I mean.”

“Y-yeah, I feel better now.” Ahiru smiled at him. “Still sleepy, but part of that’s cause I’m full too on top of still being tired, so I think I’ll sleep well and then be ready for lunch and staying awake for a while cause I don’t wanna be unable to sleep tonight, I wanna get back to normal sleeping habits, you know?”

“Yeah.” He drained the rest of his own tea. “At least you don’t have to worry about being ready for classes this time.”

“That’s true.” Ahiru yawned again. “I mean, last time, I had a couple weeks to get myself adjusted, but I was still so worried and nervous about having everything together in time for school to start that it really stressed me out and I had a harder time. This is way different, I was easily able to fall asleep last night, last year I couldn’t get to sleep at first after getting off the plane even though I was exhausted.” She paused to take a breath, and her cheeks pinkened with a small blush. “I – I um… when I woke up earlier, it was… I was dreaming about that day last year when I jumped into the leaves and you kinda caught me and you pretended like you hadn’t seen me but later you admitted you really did… remember that?”

“Of course.” Now it was Fakir’s turn to blush at the memory. “I didn’t mean to see you, it really was an accident that I walked up at that moment… but I couldn’t help but stare at you anyway, because you looked so cute.” Ahiru giggled at that, her blush deepening, and he reached over to take her hand under the table. “I’m glad you’re back,” he continued in a softer voice, the pink in his cheeks now reaching his ears as well. “I… really missed you while you were away.”

“Me too, I’m really happy too!” Ahiru squeezed his hand and smiled. “I missed you so much, it was so sad being so far away from you those months I had to be back in America, but now I’m back and I’m here to stay and we won’t be separated anymore. Not ever again.”

“I’m glad.” He rubbed her hand with his thumb. “I don’t want… I’d hate for you to regret this move, I want it to be something you’re happy with.”

“It is, it really is! Don’t worry!” She squeezed his hand again. “I told you, it was something I was already really thinking about even before we started being together, cause I love it here and I’d always wanted to come here to see where my parents came from and then when I did get here it felt like coming home even though I was still really anxious about being ready for school and everything and then we got together and that was just… it helped seal it for me, you know? So this wasn’t just because of you, I have other reasons that haven’t gone away and existed before we really got to know each other, I mean, you _are_ a part of it, I don’t want you to feel bad or anything, just…” She trailed off, trying to think of how to phrase it.

“No, I don’t, don’t worry.” Fakir shook his head. “I understand, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Being only one of the reasons is the way it should be – I shouldn’t be your sole reason for uprooting yourself and moving to a whole other country and I’d worry about your long-term happiness here if I was.”

“Well, you’re not, so you don’t have to worry about that.” Relief swept over her that she didn’t have to struggle to explain herself further, though she wasn’t entirely surprised. He always seemed to understand her perfectly even when she was fumbling over her words and felt like what she was trying to say was hopelessly muddled; it was one of the reasons their relationship worked so well, because they’d somehow connected on a deep level and understood each other perfectly.

“Good.” He kissed her hand, and then let go so that he could begin to clear the table now that they were done eating. Ahiru got up to help him, putting the jars away while he loaded the dishes and silverware into the dishwasher.

After that, they headed upstairs to clean themselves up; Ahiru insisted that he shower first, since he had to go open the shop soon, while Fakir wanted her to shower first as her being able to get back in bed and sleep after her shower was more important to him than opening the shop promptly. Especially since, as he said, business was always a little slow at first anyway. They argued about it for a few minutes, but Fakir eventually relented when Ahiru pointed out that she’d be able to relax and enjoy herself more if she knew he was already done and didn’t have to wait for her, and she wanted to wash her hair anyway. So into the shower he went, and Ahiru sat down on the bed to look through a book she’d brought in her carry-on bag while she waited.

She glanced up from the book as the bathroom door opened, and her heart skipped a beat as she saw him walk out. He had his hair tied back already, but he wasn’t wearing anything but his underwear, and it reminded her of just _how_ long it’d been since they’d had sex. That was something that needed to be remedied soon.

Fakir glanced over at her as he heard her involuntary intake of breath, and he easily discerned what she was thinking about when their eyes met; heat spread through him and his own heart raced. “I wish I could just spend the day in bed with you,” he said huskily as he walked over to his wardrobe to retrieve a shirt and pants.

“Y-yeah, me too,” Ahiru said with a sleepy giggle. “Maybe tomorrow, when you have the shop closed and I’m more rested for stuff?” She gave him that little wink, the one that really wasn’t one because her other eye closed partway.

“Sounds good.” He finished dressing himself, and before he could even move towards Ahiru she’d gotten up from the bed and hurried over to him, slipping her arms around him and leaning her head against his chest.

“Have a good day in the shop,” she said, her voice slightly muffled by the vest he’d put on over his shirt. “I’ll be up here.”

“That’s why it’ll be a good day.” Fakir wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, where some of her hair stuck up. “Even if everyone’s awful, I’ll know I can close up and come back here to you.”

Ahiru giggled, feeling warm all over. “Awwww, Fakir…” She hugged him tighter and then pulled back, smiling, before leaning up on her toes to kiss him. They let the kiss linger for a few minutes before he finally, reluctantly, left her embrace and headed downstairs to open the shop.

Once he was gone, Ahiru dragged herself into the shower, her movements much more sluggish than they usually were due to her low energy. She found herself tugged in two different directions by opposing desires: half of her wanted to just take her time and enjoy the hot water, the other half wanted to hurry back to bed. The former won out, however, purely by default because she was too tired to really hurry. The hot shower did feel good, though, so it wasn’t too frustrating. Afterwards, she dried off her body and put on a warm bathrobe before sinking down onto a stool and proceeding to dry all of her hair, which felt like it took even longer than it had to wash both hair and body.

It was a huge relief, therefore, to fall back into bed when her hair was finally dried and braided. Some sunlight peeked around the curtain over the window, but it wasn’t enough to keep her from dozing, not in the warm bed with a clean comforter that faintly smelled of Fakir after he’d slept here last night. Ahiru smiled to herself and clutched it closer. It had been the first night in ages they’d been able to sleep together, and it had been _so_ relaxing and soothing. Her sleep had been restful, she just hadn’t gotten enough of it yet and her body was still adjusting to the time difference.

It had been her third such flight, and on all three she’d been unable to really rest for one reason or another. On her first one last year, flying here to Germany from the States, her inability to sleep had been due to excitement and nervousness about her first time out of the country, and school issues, and she’d spent the whole flight trying various ways to occupy herself. The second one, flying back to America at the end of the school year, she’d been too sad about being apart from Fakir for a while and had spent a good portion of the trip crying and moping. She’d known it was only temporary while she sorted things out and prepared for her permanent move overseas, but it had been a wrench nevertheless, one made worse when they’d said goodbye to each other and her tears had destroyed the brave front he’d been putting up, making him shed some tears of his own while kissing her goodbye. The sight of Fakir crying had put an ache in her heart that hadn’t fully eased until she’d gotten off her flight yesterday and seen him waiting for her.

And oh, what a reunion it had been! Ignoring all the other people milling around and having reunions of their own, or just looking for their luggage, she’d run at him, leaping into his arms while happy tears streamed from her eyes. He’d caught her, of course, and had staggered backwards and wobbled, but remained upright, and held her tightly; and when she’d pulled back to look at his face she’d seen happy tears on his cheeks as he smiled and welcomed her home. _Yeah_ , she remembered saying, with an equally teary smile, _yeah, I’m home. And I’m not going anywhere anymore._ They’d laughed, and she’d let herself down out of his arms, and then once she retrieved all her things he’d brought her here. Brought her home. She’d live here now, and look for a job, and help him with the bookstore sometimes too, and they’d be happy.

With such good thoughts to fill her tired brain, it was no wonder that Ahiru found herself easily lulled to sleep. She slept the morning away, waking up only when it was half past noon. By that point she felt more rested, and ready to stay awake until later that night, so she cheerfully got out of bed and got dressed, not caring that her clothes were slightly wrinkled from being in her suitcase all this time, and headed into the kitchen to get lunch ready for herself and Fakir. As he’d told her last night before they went to bed, he’d prepared some stew that could be easily heated up today, and she set that on the stove to simmer while fetching out some bread to warm and butter.

A few minutes after one, when the food was nearly ready, Fakir joined her in the kitchen, and took his turn at embracing her from behind as she waited. “Hey.” He kissed the top of her head. “How do you feel?”

“Good!” Ahiru turned her head and beamed up at him. “I feel really rested, enough to keep staying up until tonight, and I’m so hungry for lunch now, are you?”

“Yeah.” He nodded and let her go so that he could get some bowls and plates out. “You found the stew all right?”

“Yup.” Ahiru nodded too, and took out a couple of spoons before turning the flame off under the gently bubbling stew. “Right where you said it’d be.” It occurred to her, belatedly, that he’d written the little note on it in German, knowing she’d easily be able to read it. When they’d first met he’d offered to speak English to her, but she’d assured him she didn’t need him to do that, even though he knew it, because she’d grown up fluent in German thanks to her parents speaking it around the house and anyway she wanted to keep speaking it now that she was here, as that just made sense. He’d practiced his English with her a few times, but for the most part they stuck to speaking his native tongue. And now that she was here permanently she also wanted to learn Arabic, which he’d help her with as he was fluent in that too.

“Good.” He helped her ladle stew into the bowls and put the warmed bread onto a plate that they carried over to the table along with their drinks. “After we eat I have to run some errands… do you want to come with me?”

“Of course!” Ahiru took a gulp of her soda. “It’ll be really good to go out, and I wanted to take a walk around anyway after eating so I don’t feel so sleepy.”

“All right.” Fakir glanced at the window; the sun seemed less bright now than it had earlier. “It might rain later, so we’ll have to bring an umbrella…”

“I don’t mind.” Ahiru shook her head and took another bite of her bread. “I was cooped up on a plane all day yesterday and then I’ve done nothing but sleep ever since then, it’ll be great to be outside even if it’s raining and I like the rain anyway cause it smells good and makes everything feel fresher, you know?”

“Mmmm.” He ruffled her hair, which made her giggle, and then they resumed eating. After they’d finished and cleaned up they put on their coats and got an umbrella just in case before locking up and heading out.

“I wanna go visit them this week, definitely,” Ahiru said as they strolled down the street, her hand in Fakir’s. “I think Uzura especially will be happy to see me.”

“They all will, but… yes.” Fakir squeezed her hand. “She really missed you. Not as much as I did, but a lot.”

“Yeah… it was sad saying goodbye to her, even if it was only for a short while.” Ahiru looked down at the ground. “And it felt like so long, when I walked out of the airport I felt like I hadn’t been here in _forever_ …” She turned her head to look up at him. “Did it feel like a long time to you too?”

“… Yeah.” He nodded. “It’s… so good to have you back. I know I told you that already, but it is.”

“It’s good to _be_ back.” She smiled at him, and he offered her one of his rare smiles in return.

They roamed the city for most of the afternoon, doing Fakir’s errands in between just wandering, enjoying each other’s company. It had been too long, it felt like, since they’d gotten to do anything like this together – since they’d gotten to really do _anything_ together in person at all – and it was freeing and wonderful to be able to just relax and bask in the other person’s presence. The day grew steadily cooler and darker as it progressed, and by late afternoon the prediction of rain came true, with Fakir noticing the first few drops hitting his head on their way home from the market with bags of food on their arms. Ahiru took the ones Fakir had while he opened the umbrella, and walked closer to him after returning them to him, to be sure it protected them both from the rain.

“I used to jump in puddles too, when I was little,” Ahiru said brightly as they headed home through the steady rain, their way lit by street lamps and the lights in windows. “But unlike with the leaves I got in trouble for that cause my clothes would get all wet and everything else around would get wet too and one time when I got a cold a few days later they said it was cause I splashed in the puddle and after that I was too scared to do it anymore so I stuck to leaf piles.”

“I doubt that actually gave you a cold… I don’t think that’s how it works,” Fakir said, shifting so that he could pull his keys out of his coat pocket now that they were almost there.

“Yeah, I know that now, but I didn’t then.” They paused beside the door when they got there, but before Fakir could put the key in the lock Ahiru laid her hand on his wrist to stop him. “Wait – Fakir –”

He looked down at her with a puzzled expression. “What? Is something wrong?”

“No, I just…” She trailed off as she leaned up on her toes and kissed him on the lips under the umbrella. Her face was pink when she pulled back, and she smiled shyly. “I – I always thought it’d be neat to do that with somebody… but I always forgot before, with you, or it wasn’t a good time… so…” She pressed her lips together. “Y-you don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course not.” He smiled, a little breathlessly, and bent down to kiss her cheek before returning to the task of unlocking the door.

They headed upstairs to the apartment in near-darkness, Ahiru extra careful not to trip, and started turning on the lights when they got up there before beginning to unpack and put away the groceries. Their long afternoon of walking and errands had worked up an appetite, so they took out things for dinner as they went along. Fakir sliced more bread and got out some sausages and cold cuts while Ahiru made a salad and brewed herbal tea, and rolls and cheeses were brought out too. The rain continued to pour down outside without ceasing, but inside the mood was one of warmth and quiet joy. Because Ahiru was home – the home she’d both made and found – and the next stage of their lives could truly begin.

Together.


End file.
